Arc welding machine



Feb. 14, 1939. G. scHRoEbER ,147,461

ARC WELDING MACHINE Filed Nov. 12, 1937 2 SheetsSheet l WITNESSES: INVENTOR A TORN 1939- V G. SCHROEDER ,147,46l

ARC WELDING MACHINE Filed Nov. 12, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 WITNESSES: "WENTOR Q. m 42 Ger/70rd S 0%?"0603971 Q 36 9. V a

3 46 ATTOR Y I Patented Feb. 14, 1939 UNITED STATES 2,147,461 ARC WELDING MACHINE Gerhard Schroeder, Isleworth, England, assignor to Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania ,Application November 12, 1937, Serial No. 174,191 In Germany February 3, 1937 9 Claims.

My invention relates, generally, to arc-welding, and it has particularireference to machines for performing arc-welding operations on a workpiece.

a In performing welding operations upon a workpiece, it is often desirable to weld a seam along some predetermined line. Under such 'circumstances, where thedesired line of the weld is at all irregular, it has heretofore customarily iv been the practice to use either manually operated mined irregular line under varying conditions within widely separated limits. Cam operated welding machines must necessarily have complicated guiding mechanisms, and where a weld- 28 ing head must be capable of covering an extensive area in performing the welding operation, their construction becomes further complicated and they are more expensive to build. Manually operated semi-automatic machines, on the other 30 hand, require the constant attention of an operator and, therefore, tend to place a limit on production and reduce the efliciency of output.

It is, therefore, generally an object of my invention to provide means for enabling an automatic welding operation to be performed along a predetermined line or path ona body of irregular shape.

' More specifically, it is an object of my invention to provide means in an arc welding machine 40 for permitting a movable welding head to rotate tion relative to an edge of the workpiece.

Still another object of my invention is to prow. v videme aps in the welding'machine for biasing a guide member to engage a workpiece to maintain the welding head in a predetermined relation 65 with respect to an edge of the workpiece.

A still further object of my invention is to provide means in connection with a seam-welding machine for positioning a welding head to follow a predetermined line relative to an edge ofarbitrary shape and curve in a member being 5 welded.

For a complete understanding of the nature and scope of my invention, reference may be had to the. following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which: 4

Figure l is a front elevational view partly in section of a welding machine embodying a preferred form of my invention;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation view of the welding machine of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view along the line III- -III of Fig. 2. v

Referring to Figure 1,: it may be seen that in practicing a preferred form of my invention, a welding machine, designated generally by the reference numeral l0, may comprise a plurality of weldingheads H, disposed to feed electrodes i2 and perform a welding operation on a workpiece it, and guide members such as, for example, rolls 15, which are associated therewith for en- ,gaging the workpiece l4 and maintaining the welding heads il in 'a predetermined position relative thereto. The welding heads ll may be connected in movable relation with a movable support member i6 by means of an intermediate support member H, in such a manner that they are free to follow any predetermined line along the workpiece as determined by the guide rolls l5. Referring more particularly to Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings, it may be seen that, in order to provide maximum flexibility in the welding machine, I prefer that support arms l9 be provided, the welding heads ll being pivotally connected therewith in any desired manner, such 40 as by means of bearing pins 2|. The guide rolls i5, which are disposed to engage the work-piece it, upon which a welding operation is to be performed, and maintain the welding heads H in 45 a predetermined position thereto, may be rotatably mounted on the support members l9, being, for instance, journalled in bifurcated extensions 22 thereof. Adjusting means of 'any suitable nature, such as the threaded shafts. 23 and hand wheel 2! may be. provided for adjusting each welding head ll relative to its support member I9, thereby permitting a variation in the position of the welding heads llwith respect to their 'associated guide roll l5, and permitting a welding operation to be performed at any desired distance from an edge of the object to be welded.

In order that the guide rolls I5 may readily follow lateral variations in a workpiece when a welding operation is being performed on a memberof irregular outline, such as for example, a side member in an automobile frame, the support members l9 may be independently disposed in pivotal relation with a verticaly rotatable support pin 25. Bifurcated bearing journals 21 and 26, respectively, may be provided integral with respective support members IQ for engaging a bearing pin 29, which may be, as shown in Fig. 2, an integral portion of the rotatable support pin 25.

To permit the welding heads I l to follow variations in the surface contour of the workpiece, an additional guide roll 30 may be provided, it being, for example, mounted on a guide arm 32, which, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, may be an extension of the rotatable support pin 25.' Springs 34 interposed between the support arms l9 and the guide arm 32 function to resiliently bias the guide rolls l5 into engagement with the workpiece I4, thereby permitting the welding heads H to follow, independently, a predetermined line relative to an edge of the workpiece. By adjustment of the handwheels 24, the position of the welding heads ll may be altered, to vary the line of a welding operation relative to an edge of the workpiece.

In order that the welding heads I I may readily follow a predetermined line with respect to an edge of the workpiece, the support pin 25 may be operatively connected with the movable support member 16, which is herein disposed to provide the motive power for permitting the welding heads to follow the desired line of a welding operation, by means of an intermediate support member ll. As is shown in Figs. 2 and 3, the intermediate support member I! may provide a highly fiexiblecoupling between the support pin 25 which carries the welding heads, and the mov able support member. In this instance the intermediate support member I1 is provided with a bearing journal 36 at one end adapted to rotatably engage the bearing portion 31 of the supporting pin 25, and a bifurcated bearing portion 38 at the other end, having its axis perpendicular to the axes of the member l6 and the bearing journal 36. A rotatable pivot member 40 may be provided for rotatably connecting the intermediate support member H and the movable support member l6. As shown in Figs. 2 and 3 the member 40 may comprise a longitudinal journal portion 42, for engaging an extended bearing portion 44 of the movable support member l6, and a pair of oppositely disposed aligned integral bearing bosses 46, having their axis disposed in quadrature to the axis of the longitudinal journal portion 42, for engagement with the bifurcated bearing member 38 of the intermediate support member IT.

From the foregoing description it may be seen that the pivot member 40 is free to rotate about the support member I6, and the intermediate support member ll in being pivoted about the bearing bosses 46 of the pivot member 40, is,.

therefore, free to rotate in a plurality of planes. The support pin 25, by being rotatably connected with the intermediate support member l'l, may, therefore, readily be moved relative to the work M by movement of the support member IS. The welding heads II, which are adjustably carried by the support arms 19, are, therefore, not only flexibly mounted with respect to the workpiece l4 and guide roll 30, but are in adjustable relation with the guide rolls 1 5 and with each other,

and may be moved along any predetermined line relative to an edge of the workpiece M by movement of the support member I6.

It may thus be seen that by my invention I have provided for supporting the welding heads II in such a manner that they are free to rotate about a plurality of axes and may be maintained in a predetermined position relative to an edge of the body being welded by means of the resiliently biased guide rolls I5 and the fixed guide roll 30, thereby affording them the maximum fiexibility of motion in a simple manner, to permit them to follow readily a predetermined line with respect to the edge of the member being welded as they are moved relative thereto by motion of the movable support member l6. As will be readily understood the support member l6 may be secured to any suitable carriage or handling device for moving the welding machine relative to the work.

Since certain changes may be made in the above construction, and different embodiments of the invention may be made without departing from the spirit thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be considered as illustrative, and not in a limiting sense.

I claim as my invention:

1. A welding machine for operating on an article to be welded comprising, in combination, a welding head, means for carrying the welding head, guide means cooperative with said carrying means to engage the article to be welded and hold the welding head in predetermined horizontal and vertical relation to the article to be welded, and means for adjusting the welding head relative to the guide.

2. The combination in a welding. machine for performing a welding operation on an article, of a welding head, a supporting frame disposed to carry the welding head; guide means resiliently biased against the article to maintain the welding head in predetermined relation to an edge ofthe article, and adjusting means associated with the welding head and frame for varying the position of thewelding head relative to the guide means.

3. A welding. machine comprising, in combination, a plurality of welding heads for cooperatively performing a welding operation on a piece of work, means for supporting the welding heads, guide means associated with the welding heads for predetermining the position of the welding heads relative to the WOrk means cooperative I to urge the guide means into engagement with the work, and adjusting means for varying the position of a welding head relative to the guide means.

4; In a device for performing a welding operation on a workpiece the combination, of a movable support member, an intermediate support arm rotatable about a plurality of axes with rela tion to said movable support member, a guide arm rotatably disposed in connection with the intermediate support arm for engaging a piece of work upon which a welding operation is to be performed, a welding head adapted to perform a welding operation on said work, support means for carrying the welding head disposed in pivotal connection with said guide arm, and additional guide means resiliently disposed into engagement' with the work to maintain the welding head in a oredetermined relative position thereto, and 1'. e..ns for adjusting the position of rawer the welding head relative to the last-mentioned guide means.

5. The combination in a maclnne for performing a welding operation on an article, comprising, a plurality of welding heads. a supporting frame for carrying the welding heads, guide means resiliently disposed to maintain said welding heads in predetermined lateral relation with an edge of the article being welded, additional guide means for controlling relative motion of the welding heads and article being welded in a plane perpendicuiar to the eflective plane of control of the aforesaid guide means, and means for adiusting the position of the welding heads relative to the first-mentioned guide means.

' 6. In a welding machine for performing awelding operation on a workpiece the combination, of a movable support member, a welding head, a supporting frame for the welding head.

guide means disposed to maintain the welding head in a predetermined position relative to an edge oi the work piece, and means comprising a plurality of intermediate support members disposed in rotatable connection between the movable support member and the frame for permitting the welding head to pivot about at least four axes.

7. The combination in a welding machine for performing a welding operation on a workpiece, of a. plurality of welding heads, means for supporting said welding heads, guide means disposed to maintain the welding heads along a predetermined arbitrary line on the work piece, means for adjusting the position of said welding heads relative to said guide means, additional guide means disposed to control relative movement ofthe welding heads and work perpendicular to the plane of the work, a movable support, and means including an intermediate support arm rotatable -about a plurality of axes for connecting the movable support and supporting means to permit the welding heads to mrform a welding operation along a predetermined arbitrary line in the workpiece.

8. The combination in a welding device for performing a welding operation on an article, of a plurality of welding heads, support means associated with the welding heads, guide members individually associated with the welding heads forv engaging the article to be welded, means for adjusting said welding heads relative to said guide members, means for resiliently. urging the guide members into engagement with the article for maintaining the welding heads in a predetermined relation with respect thereto, a movable support member, and means including an intermediate support arm rotatable about a plurality of axes for operatively associating the welding heads with the movable support member to per-. mit the welding heads to follow a predetermined path relative to a guide member. 1

9. In a machine for performing an arc-welding operation on an article, the combinatiomof a plurality of welding heads, a guide member adapted to follow surface variations of an article to be welded, support means for carrying the welding heads disposed in pivotal relationwith said guide member, guide means operable to maintain the welding heads in predetermined lateral relation with the article to be welded, means for resiliently maintaining said guide-means in engagement with the article to bewelded, means for a dJusting said welding heads relative to said guide I means, and means co mpriaing a movable support member and a pivotal connecting member for moving the welding heads along a predetermined line for performing a welding operation on the 

